


Summer Storms and Flash Floods

by SadinaSaphrite



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Blackwatch Genji is ANGRY, Gen, Jesse McCree tries to make a friend out of an angry ninja, McCree/Genji friendship but could easily be interpreted as McGenji, Mild Language, This is literally an excuse for me to injure characters and write banter dialogue, mission goes wrong
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-25
Updated: 2017-07-25
Packaged: 2018-12-06 18:07:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11606076
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SadinaSaphrite/pseuds/SadinaSaphrite
Summary: It was supposed to be a simple mission. Well, damn if McCree didn’t have a nickel for every time he’d heard that phrase.***Covert missions aren't always helped by summer storms, and sometimes you need a hand to pick yourself back up afterward.





	Summer Storms and Flash Floods

**Author's Note:**

> Part of Blackwatch Week 2017. Prompt 3: Friends.

It was supposed to be a simple mission. Well, damn if McCree didn’t have a nickel for every time he’d heard that phrase. They had been positioned about ten miles west of Santa Rosa, at a ranch that was supposedly acting as a cover for Deadlock gun trafficking. All they were supposed to do was get in, plant some tracking devices in the shipment, and get out. Their mission was to figure out where the guns were going, not to stop it.

He and Genji had gotten in fine, and the timing had seemed perfect: a late night storm had blown in out of nowhere, the clouds hiding the moon and the sudden pounding rain muffling the sounds of their break in. Planting the trackers was easy enough, but they’d been spotted upon their exit by a Deadlock thug who had left his patrol to go take a piss, of all people. 

That’s how McCree found himself sprinting through sagebrush, dodging bullets, through a New Mexican summer storm. Genji was faster than he was, and had some sort of cybernetic enhancement that let him see in the dark, so he had taken the lead. Only the glowing red lights and the occasional flash of lightning let McCree see where Genji was, and he did his best to follow, hoping that the ninja knew where he was going and wasn’t just running blindly into the desert. 

Gunshots still cracked through the air behind him, mixing with the roll of thunder. McCree heard the whistle of a bullet narrowly missing his ear, and thought he saw the lights ahead of him jerk, but he couldn’t be sure if that was just Genji darting over sagebrush or not. A moment later, the lights vanished. 

“Genji??” McCree plowed onward, tearing through a stubborn, shrubby clump of sage. “Genji!” He looked frantically through the dark, trying to see where the ninja had gone, and completely missed the steep drop off until he’d put one foot over it, falling a good six feet into the ditch Genji had dropped down into. 

He landed face first in the ditch, already a few inches deep with muddy water, sputtering as he clambered to his hands and knees. “Genji? What in the hell-”

Genji appeared beside him, roughly helping haul him to his feet. “They will not be able to see us down here. We can follow this ditch to flank around them and get back to the rendezvous point!”

McCree could barely make out Genji’s voice through the torrential roar of rain, and it took him a moment to figure out what he’d said. A flash of lightning tore through the night, giving McCree a better look at the deep irrigation ditch they were standing in, ankle deep in rushing rainwater. Genji grabbed McCree’s arm and tried to haul him forward to follow the ditch’s path.

“What? No!” McCree pulled away, shouting over the storm. “Genji, we have to get out of here! Climb, get out of this ditch!” He grabbed the cyborg by the wrist and tried to pull him toward the ditch wall. “Now, now!”

Genji pulled his wrist away and started to argue, but McCree couldn’t hear him over the roaring storm. 

“Shut up! Come on, we have to go! Get out, get out!” An increase in the roaring in McCree’s ears and the feeling of the rising water spilling into his boots was all the warning he had before the flash flood was upon them. A wall of water crashed into McCree’s back, sending him flying into Genji before the flood sent them both tumbling head over heels. McCree was already disoriented, trying to figure out which way was up. Strong arms wrapped tightly around him as he tumbled in a tangle of limbs.

The first impact prompted McCree to cling back to the form clutching to him. The second impact drove the air from his lungs and he scrambled desperately for some sort of sign of what was up or down. The third impact cracked against his skull, and then he wasn’t aware of anything at all.

*****

It hurt to breathe. There was an ache in his chest and a sharp, raw pain that grated against the back of his throat with every breath. McCree took a deeper breath, but it only made the feeling worse, and he broke into a coughing fit, curling up on his side as he tried to cough his lungs up, mixed with a little dry heaving. He cracked his eyes open, squinting in the bright sunlight. 

Oh thank god. He was alive.

“Oh good. You’re alive,” Genji’s voice droned beside him. The ninja was sitting cross-legged beside him, the pair of them sitting in the shade of a particularly tall juniper bush. “I was about to leave you and find the evacuation point on my own.”

McCree groaned and rolled over, not bothering to form a reply. He took his time sitting up, slowly feeling himself out as he tested each movement, trying to figure out how injured he was. Sharp pains made themselves known here and there and everything was blanketed by a throbbing ache all over, but he miraculously didn’t feel the sharp stab of a broken bone. He winced as he pushed himself up to his knees, pretty sure he’d sprained his left wrist. Overall, he’d gotten off pretty damn lucky.

“Shoulda left when you had the chance. Now you get to listen to me lecture you about the dangers of flash floods all the way to the evac point.” He carefully shifted, sitting with his legs splayed out before him, and glanced at Genji. “Deadlock?”

“We lost them. Haven’t seen them since the storm.”

“That’s something, at least. How long was I out?”

“It’s only about nine in the morning. You were out for most of the night,” Genji looked up at the clear sky. “The storm stopped a few hours before dawn. ...It’s strange. You can’t even tell there was a storm last night, apart from the wet ground.”

“That’s the desert for you,” McCree coughed again. He and Genji were both covered in a layer of mud, though it was apparent that Genji had tried to clean himself off, with little success. The cyborg was also making a whirring noise that McCree hadn’t heard before. “Hey, you doing alright? You ain’t gonna rust on me, are you?”

Genji snorted. “Of course not,” His voice softened. “…Though I believe the mud may have clogged some of my exhaust ports. I have been…unsuccessful at clearing the ones on my back.”

McCree could see a few broken juniper branches with mud on the end scattered around Genji. The thought of Genji waiting patiently for McCree to wake up, picking at his cybernetic bits with a stick like a kid playing in mud was almost enough to make McCree laugh. He restrained himself to a lopsided grin instead. “That mean you’re gonna overheat if we don’t make it to evac before it gets hot?”

Genji was silent for a moment and didn’t meet McCree’s gaze. “…I don’t know.”

McCree’s smile faded a bit at his somber tone. He and Genji had been on quite a few missions together, but they didn’t talk about his…ah…condition. Anytime McCree had brought it up, Genji had been evasive or dismissive, frequently changing the subject. McCree was smart enough to know when to stop asking. Most of the time. 

“Well, shoot. Get over here and let me finish you up, so we can get outta here without another one of us passing out.” McCree grabbed one of the sticks. 

“ _No._ ” Genji stood up abruptly.

“Aw, c’mon. What are friends for if not picking mud out of another fella’s exhaust ports?”

“We are _not_ friends.” Genji said with enough force to take McCree aback.

“Alright, alright. Keep your shirt on. Figuratively speaking.” The glare Genji sent him let McCree know in no uncertain terms that he wasn’t helping his situation. “It’s just when a man saves your life and sits by your side until you wake up, you tend to make certain assumptions.”

Genji scoffed, folding his arms. “I did no such thing.”

“I find that hard to believe.” McCree started to rise to his feet. “That flood had me all in shambles, even before I passed out. One of us pulled me out, and it sure as hell wasn’t-” McCree’s left leg buckled under his full weight. Genji was there before he could crumple to the ground, catching him, already putting an arm around him for support.

“S-shit…Might be a little more banged up than I thought. Ankle ain’t right. Sprained or broken.”

“It’s alright. Lean on me.” Genji helped McCree up, supporting him.

“Alright, Not-Friend.”

“Shut up, McCree.”

Genji began heading north, the rising sun on their right. McCree frowned, absently reaching to adjust his hat to block out the sun, only to find it missing. 

“Oh…Aw, hell…”

“What is it?” Genji glanced over at him, eyes sharp above his faceplate.

“My hat…I lost my hat…” Of course it was gone. There was no way he could have held onto it during that flood.

“Oh. Is that all?”

“Hey now, Acquaintance. Don’t you be dismissing the loss of a gentleman’s hat. I’m in mourning, here. Have some compassion,” McCree put his free hand to his chest, resting over his heart. “I’ve had that hat for years. Pretty cold of you, Shimada, saving me but not my hat. A right tragedy.”

Genji rolled his eyes. “I’ll buy you a new hat.”

“Nothing could ever replace it.”

“I’ll get you a better hat.”

“No such thing.”

“I’ll find one with bullets on it. It’ll be the ugliest thing you’ve ever seen. You’ll love it.”

“Now why would an Associate of a fella, who is definitely not a friend, go through the trouble of buying his Not-Friend a new hat?” 

“To get you to shut up.”

“Partner, if all it took to get me to shut up was a promise of a new accessory, I’d-” McCree broke into a coughing fit, clinging to Genji. Genji slowed to a stop, holding McCree securely, letting him ride the fit out. “…Hell…Thanks.”

“Of course,” Genji continued steadily toward the evacuation point. “…After all, what are Not-Friends for?”

McCree smiled beside him.

Not-Friends, indeed.

*****  
Bonus: 

“Hey, you didn’t give me mouth to mouth, did ya?”

“…ofcoursenot.”


End file.
